Following a 1-5 season in 2011, this year the Falcons have rebounded with three wins against Gunn, Homestead and Lynbrook, leaving them with a league record of 3-3.
Senior Ian Burns and his brother, freshman Aidan Burns, led the team in point contributions. Coach Christian Bonner has high hopes for the two at CCS, which will be held at the Santa Clara Swim Center on May 11 and 12.
“Aidan has made his CCS cut in the 100 back and the 500 free; those are probably what he’s going to swim at CCS,” Bonner said. “Ian, unfortunately, has been a little injured, so I have to have a discussion with him about what he’s actually going to swim at CCS.”
In addition to the Burns brothers, key additions to the varsity team like sophomore Patrick Wang and freshman Randy Tsai have supplemented the boys’ scores. Tsai typically places first, second or third in the 200-yard individual medley (IM), 100-yard butterfly or 100-yard backstroke. Wang, on the other hand, consistently placed first in his JV events before Bonner decided to promote him to the varsity team.
“The season is going really, really well,” Bonner said. “A lot of the kids who are swimming JV have been swimming fast. Wang, who I moved to varsity at the meet [against Lynbrook], is within a second [of his CCS cut] in the 100 breaststroke and within two seconds in the 100 butterfly.”
Ian placed first in the 100-yard freestyle at CCS last year, so Bonner expects him to swim it again this year. As for Ian’s second individual event, Bonner predicts the 200-yard individual medley, 200-yard freestyle or 50-yard freestyle.
Other CCS qualifiers include sophomore Cameron Borch (200-yard and 500-yard freestyles), Tsai (100-yard backstroke) and junior Michael Lee (100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard IM). This year will be the first time any of the three will go to CCS.
“After I got [my cut in the 200-yard freestyle], it was really cool,” Borch said. “I couldn’t stop smiling. Just the whole day, I was really happy.”
Both the 200-yard medley and 400-yard freestyle relay teams also qualified to go to CCS. Additionally, sophomores Sasha Samoilov and Mitch Miller are approaching the CCS times in the 50 and 100-yard freestyles, while Tsai is close in the 200-yard IM.
Like in previous years, Saratoga’s team lacks the “depth”—the sheer quantity of swimmers that can score points by placing in the top 16 at meets like CCS—that teams like Bellarmine’s have. Nonetheless, Bonner is hopeful for the Falcons.
“In the way of the other boys who have their CCS cuts, [they will] hopefully make top 16,” Bonner said. “But it’s going to be hard, because some of the top 16s this year are going to be way faster than they have in the past.”
In future years, however, Bonner envisions improvements for the team.
“Ian’s going to be graduating this year, but other than that, the reality is our team is a young team,” he said. “We have the potential of getting a couple of really good freshmen in, depending upon where they go to school. It’s going to be interesting to see where kids that are going to be freshmen next year end up going.”
